Easy peasy

My parcel arrived, quite quickly too as it was sent by Amazon es not uk.

I also bought some coloured paper, so having done a couple of practice runs using white, I used this pretty green

Really easy to do, just have to make sure of accurate cutting

A little glue and a sweet little envelope appears
I also found these lurking in the drawer and pulled them out thinking little embellishments

I am sure some fun will be had playing about

Unbelievable that these peppers have ripened on the plant in January in the courtyard and there are several green ones following along with a few chillies

Cats always seem to find inappropriate places to sleep, whether its a tiny box or your best jumper
but these three take the biscuit, freshly laundered washing just brought in from the garden, hardly had time to turn round before the word was out and they were getting comfy and fast asleep.

take care
xcx

Paper trails

I am trying to take advantage of the sunny days as we have them, when the wind is in the right direction which means our Naya is really warm and a sun trap, even getting up to 18 some days. I start off with several layers, gradually peeling them off and pulling my sleeves up. 

I sit just away from the table, as today, when I was trying to pick up stitches for the armholes of the purple jumper, when I realised that I was getting ´driver´s arm´, quite a marked difference from lilly white to a gentle tan. Now I am not a sun worshiper, as in I can´t be asked to sit or lay in the sun doing nothing just to resemble being a lizard, but I think I may have to shift sides to even up the brown bits.

A couple of days ago it was just not possible to do this, so having seen Fee´s post 

http://www.feeslittlecraftsstudio.com/

I decided to have a play.

Rebecca and Antoni had left a couple of little pressies each the last time they were over for us to open for Christmas, well as Christmas didn´t happen I had mine when I got back, this was one of them

Absolutely brilliant, so many blades, very easy to change system with the stone to resharpen the blades as and when.

As I am not really into paper craft as such, apart from a butterfly stamp we used for our wedding decorations and saving bits n bobs, as you do, I didn´t have pretty papers or paper embellishments, but I did have some card.

First attempt at box making as Fee describes in her tutorial

Except I forgot the belly band!

Second attempt, getting there! 

Except the butterfly punch was broken, so call for help, no point in having an engineer in the house if you dont call on their expertise. There was a time of well this has had it, unless I......drill through here, put pins in there and..... well he did, and it worked, yeah!!

Long way to go, but after cutting the boxes I had left over card so made a little gift tag

Yeah, I know, no where near the wonderful creations card people make, but we all have to start somewhere, I´ve got some Angelina fibers somewhere, have to hunt them out

I even had a thought of using the glue gun to make some of the embellishments, so using waxed paper, drew the shape and tried to trace........... Ah yes well, it seems gone are the days when I used to use a 00 nozzle for icing cos as you will see this did not turn out well

Not wishing to blame my tools, but it was not really controllable enough, any way, nothing lost, rather frustrating really with the way my gun (mis) behaved

However, I did splash out!! MIL gave me some money and instead of it getting buried amongst usual finances, I decided to buy an envelope maker

So along with a pack of paper, I had 2p left of my money and they delivered to Spain, win win

Just have to be patient

take care

xcx

WIP´s

We have done really well clearing the garden area, but I have had a couple of days rest as stupidly I had balanced the garden stool rather precariously and as I tugged at some of the roots they tugged back and I fell backwards off the stool, landing on my back on the edge of the stool, lesson learnt!

We had quite a successful trip to the Ondara shopping centre on Wednesday, getting one of my sim cards cut down to fit in my new (second hand) phone, I popped into one of the shoe shops and managed to find another pair of ankle boots, exactly the same as the ones I already have, which are quite comfortable and much tidier than the old ones. They were priced at 29.90 which I thought a reasonable price, but at the checkout they came up as 24.90e so even better.

Whilst I had been away there had been a few casualties on the wine and tumbler glasses front and I bought 6 wine glasses for 7.50e and 6 tall tumblers for 4.50e, not bad.

We were hungry so decided to have lunch at Maria´s as a treat, they always have pot plants on the tables, usually orchids, but these were outside in a large tub and looked so pretty.

I am really pleased with my new phone, it is a Motorola one, which doesn´t quite sing and dance but is far superior to my old one. I usually get Rebecca´s cast offs but this one was only 8 months old and I gave her the price she would have got if she had sold it on which was really reasonable. I certainly wouldn´t have bought one that expensive new. The camera is really good too and has added things like note book etc and it charges really fast and keeps its charge too, unlike my previous one that kept catching me out with low battery readings.

On the knitting front, I finished off a baby blanket I had started and will just put it away until its needed.

Last year I had started on a short sleeved jumper using aran weight, but it was really difficult to knit in the hot weather so abandoned it in favour of different projects. It is a really simple design, one colour, stocking stitch, which did get a bit tedious, but I am now on the neck and armhole edges so on the homeward stretch.

I am having to use circular needles as you can´t get straights around the curves. It´s good to finish a few WIP´s

Hope you have all had a good weekend

take care

xcx

Lady at work

Can´t settle, don´t feel creative, so next best thing, tackle the garden

We all know how gardens can run away with you, but ours seems to have galloped off running amok

First to tackle was the rose garden by the pool. I learnt very quickly that pruning takes place so much earlier than in the UK. I forgot to take a before picture, but I´m sure you can see by the piles of weeds and clippings how overgrown it had become. In fact we have one rose already in flower.

Finally finished except I can´t find the photo lol

Then moved on to tackle a very invasive plant, its all top growth with loads of dead wood beneath

There is actually a 2/3 foot bed underneath that lot

We have some large builders sacks which are very useful, three filled so far plus a couple of wheelbarrow loads

Moved the bench with its back to the pool and now I can sit and view the Med

Much warmer today, so after a nice cuppa in the Naya, it´s back to work.

Luckily we obtained our fire licence from the Suma office, so hopefully with a controlled bonfire most of the debris will disappear.

Take care

xcx

Thank you

Wishing you all a very Happy New year

I would like to sincerely thank everyone for your comments, they were very comforting.

I returned home late Sunday night, it was so very difficult to leave, but it is nice to be in my own environment again, also to be able to feel a little warm sunshine on my face.

I didn´t have a device to be able to do a post, I also didn´t think it appropriate given the time of year.

We were told to arrive 10.30 Monday morning but unfortunately treatment couldn´t start until 4pm as the room was being used. Rebecca and I went to find some lunch which was surprisingly good from the cafe. We were getting more and more anxious as the hours drifted passed.
We were shown into a special en suite with double bed and sofa, Oh goodness was the sofa hard though, with coffee machine, kettle and all the necessary items to make drinks and a little fridge for our sarnies etc. Although in fact Antoni was catered for with meals as well as Rebecca.

Rebecca and Antoni´s Angel baby Rose Elizabeth was born 18th December after 14 hours labour.

So tiny, so beautiful

I was honoured and given the privilege of cutting the cord

(Antoni didn´t want to)
At least I was able to be there to rub, hold hands and forehead when the morphine caused sickness and give comfort and of course blessed to be there for Roses´birth.

Antoni!? well bless it was all too much and he slept for over 4 hours next to Rebecca whilst she did what us women do! He did wake up in time for the birth though and for someone who said he wasn´t going to be there for that bit did very well.

I cannot praise enough the gentleness, caring, thoughtfulness and compassionate care that the nursing staff and everyone afforted us.

Nothing was too much trouble, and we were all left to be able to hold and cuddle Rose for as long as we wanted and were encouraged to take as many photos as we could and with a phone call were able to arrange other visits whenever we wanted.

Rose was dressed in a sort of tiny shroud and the teeny hat I had managed to knit, she was also wrapped in one of the blankets I had made and gifted to Rebecca in November.
They were presented with a beautiful memory box containing amongst other things, a Guardian Angel keyring, a beautiful candle in a silk bag, two little teddies, one for Rose and the other Rebecca. There was also a special kit for taking tiny hand and foot prints and the midwife was so so gentle making sure she got it right.
They took photographs too and arranged for the Chaplain to come and conduct a naming ceremony.

Although Rebecca was given the all clear for discharge, we were not rushed and stayed for many hours holding and cuddling. I stepped out quite a few times to give them the space and privicy to be with their daughter.

Having to leave the hospital with empty arms was devastating made even more difficult knowing we then had to go to the funeral directors to arrange things, with the holiday period this was quite tricky.

We chose the Co-op as they were very accommodating, helpful and could offer better times to allow people to travel. To our amazement we were told everything was for free, the only charge was for the Order of Service. We were offered the 10th Jan but Rebecca said no can´t wait that long and managed to get the 3rd Jan. Again they did everything in their power to make this as easy as they could with the Chapel of rest offered when ever you needed.
Rebecca had ordered some story books so she could read to Rose
How much I love you, The Snowman and The Owl who was afraid of the dark
She sat very serene, cuddling Rose quietly reading to her every time we visited.
It was very moving to see, but also very hard to keep a lid on my emotions so I could be there for her.

Amongst all this of course they had only moved house the previous Friday so we were living in boxville! Rushing from the flat loaded up back to the house. Glad I was there to help as Rebecca was told not to do very much!! Ha, I tried telling her! but we managed to get some sort of order amongst it all, especially as they planned to have people back after the funeral.

The day dawned and we visited Rose for the last time, you have heard of the expression ´cried buckets´ well I think we filled several with Rebecca having to be firmly lead away by Antoni

We were collected from the house in the limo with Rose on the first row of seats.
Daniel, Shine and the girls made the journey from Exeter with 10 mins to spare, squeaky!
Unfortunately, even though they had caused no small amount of selfish stress, Antoni´s family, travelling from Nottingham, decided at the very last minute they were not attending.
Well if you could see my tongue it still has the grooves in it where I had clamped it firmly between my teeth!!
The chapel was quite small seating up to 40 people, it was warm cosy and quite welcoming, as opposed to the cold stiff places I have attended before.
Rebecca and Antoni carried Rose in, a tiny pink coffin, which was set upon a large cushion.
The service had been very carefully thought out with the celebrant and was very moving, beautiful and totally in keeping with a tiny Rose.
The flowers were kept to a minimum but they were fresh, vibrant and a beautiful mix, including of course roses.
Daisy, Antoni´s sister sang her own beautiful version of Fly by Celine Dion, they were heart touching poems, I read (just!) our family prayer and we listened to A Mother´s prayer again Celine and music during reflection.
I don´t know how she did it but Rebecca went over to Rose and read her the story of How much I love you, not a dry eye to be seen.
There was a collection after wards for the Willow Charity, they have a support group for families to share and provide the memory boxes etc.

After the service we went out to the Flower garden and Rebecca and Antoni, after a short poem, released a balloon each and we watched as they danced around each other, drifting higher into the sky, until out of sight
Fly high little Angel Rose fly.

Time is needed to reflect and heal and whilst all the cliches are old they are still true.
Thank you again for your thoughts
Take care
xcx